Linux

Linux is gaining a lot of steam lately – no pun intended. A series of lame Windows versions and Apple’s decision to start using a real operating system as the basis of MacOS have seemingly turned the tide, and people are switching to Linux like never before.

It helps that the most of the Linux offerings have been improving the user experience. Driver support has improved markedly, and updates are now relatively seamless.

I’ve been running a Linux server for a couple of years now, gradually digging into its guts. For a while, I was just playing, but most recently I completed setting up a complete email system for the domains I host locally. That was fun, and I hope to post here about the experience in the near future.

All of my other computers are still running Windows XP. There will be no more updates from Microsoft for Windows XP after April 8, 2014, which will make its continued use a seriously risky endeavour. Since I still want to be able to play Windows games on two of my PCs, obviously I’ll need to clench my teeth and switch to Windows 7 (or possibly 8) on those machines. The rest of my PCs are servers, and since the server software I’m running is available for Linux, I’m going to switch them all to Linux. In fact, I may just buy a honking big 64 bit Linux box and move all the server stuff there.

Beyond the obvious issues with the more recent Windows versions, it’s just too damned expensive to buy new licenses for all these Windows machines. Like many commercial software companies, Microsoft prices its products much higher than they should. It’s increasingly clear that lowering prices often leads to increased revenue. Steam has demonstrated this with video games. If Microsoft had priced Windows 7 reasonably, everyone would be running it, and they wouldn’t have to beg people to upgrade away from Windows XP. If Apple priced their computers reasonably, everyone would have one by now.

Anyway, I’ll post my Linux experiences here, in the hopes that someone out there will find them entertaining or useful – or even both.

jrivett’s Tweets

New white paper confirms that compromising encryption (to make law enforcement a bit easier) is a very bad idea. AG and FBI officials are really just advertising their own weakness when they complain about this. techdirt.com/article…

Describing his hobby as 'fun' and saying “I never intended for anyone to get shot and killed”, this serial Swatter will hopefully get 10+ years behind bars for his role in a Kansas death-by-SWAT. krebsonsecurity.com/…